She Wants To Be Like Me

It’s simultaneously flattering and terrifying that I have a daughter who wants to be just like me. She sees the worst of me, along with the best. My biggest failures are most often toward those who I love the most: my husband and my daughter. I’ve had to ask her forgiveness so many times. She’s always gracious to forgive. She teaches me. When she offends me, I want to be mad; I want her to know that I’m mad. On the contrary, when I’ve lost my temper with her, she responds to my apologies with so much grace. “It’s OK, Mommy. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. You just try again.”

The other day I was heading out to take care of the chickens. She asked, “Mommy, can I follow you?” She hurried to put her shoes on so she could shadow me on my chores. If I’m working, she wants to work. If I’m vacuuming, she wants to vacuum. If I’m cooking, she wants to cook. If I throw a fit when I’m mad, she throws a fit when she’s mad. If I bark commands at her, she barks commands at me (or others). If I sing and dance in worship, she sings and dances in worship. If I feel sick, she feels sick. When I see how much she wants to be like me, I’m humbled. I’m desperate to be more like Jesus so when she emulates me, she’s emulating Him.

Jesus, help me to be like You. Help me to love my daughter well. Help me to be on her side and to model love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2014 at 8:00 am and is filed under Faith, Family, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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5 Responses to She Wants To Be Like Me

“I’m desperate to be more like Jesus so when she emulates me, she’s emulating Him.” I rather like this line very much.

The connection between a mother and her daughter is a powerful one. It is one where she learns through her mother’s every action, what it means to be a lady. Through her daughter, she learns what it means to have someone’s unconditional admiration. As she learns from you, you learn from her.

Oh Girl, this is so true! It’s downright scary sometimes. Just the other day I was correcting one of my kids for their tone. All the while I could hear myself in my memories speaking with this exact tone. They copy, fortunately the good and not just the bad. But it is a huge responsibility. It reminds me of an old song of a father praying. It has the line “Lord I want to be just like you, ’cause he wants to be like me.” Timeless message.

“I’m desperate to be more like Jesus so when she emulates me, she’s emulating Him.” I think this captures perfectly the difficulty of parenting. This is our goal and yet, by definition of being human, we know we will fall short.